“Soft contours and loose grooves.
More and more DJs are using their music as a platform for defending their values. This generational awakening is a defining feature of electronic music in 2019. But for Russell E.L. Butler, music isn’t just a platform for the political. It is the stuff of politics. It is a world-building project itself, a way of manifesting the utopia you believe in—or it least it can be, when done right. More than just a vehicle for a message, music can actually carve out “an ideal space for community,” Butler once said, “a space to dream… and feel what freedom and transcendence would be like.” The title of their album last year, The Home I’d Build For Myself And All My Friends, captured this notion, that music can foster safety and intimacy.
On The Home I’d Build…, Butler explored a texture-centric modular techno sound, with defiantly weird rhythms and an improvisational feel. They turned the intensity up a couple notches with Petty, a club-focused EP of rowdy drum tracks. Their 12-inch last month for Fixed Rhythms, 606 Trax, was even more skeletal, with literally no melodic element to speak of. On their podcast for RA, they reveal another side of their sound: what they might play at an easy-going daytime BBQ “on a porch somewhere,” Butler said. “Bellies are full, but excitement for the evening is starting to build.” It’s full of soft contours and loose grooves, moving from dubby house cuts to sweet R&B and ethereal techno, with decisive mixes that makes the genre jumps feel natural. There’s an approachable energy to it, like they’re inviting you to come party with them and their friends.”
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Russell E.L. Butler – Resident Advisor podcast #686 2019-07-22 [Uploaded.net download]
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